When we ask “What do you do?”, what we often mean is “What WORK do you do?” In many ways — at least in the United States — our culture tells us, “You ARE what you do for a living.” Not only as a provider for your family and a meaningful contributor to society (and “meaningful” is often defined by the paycheck and the status") but as someone who is earnestly chasing the “American Dream.”

The original ideas of the “American Dream” may have been about equality, justice and democracy, its current interpretation has become the ethos of our society — the belief that anyone who works hard enough work can achieve material success and upward mobility and that this type of prosperity will give you liberty and happiness. Here the values of self-reliance and work ethic are highly valued and often come at the cost of our health, relationships, and others’ well-being as we claw our way to “the top.”

For some of us our work identity becomes what we call our “single-source” identity. Meaning, we have put most if not all our identity “eggs” into one basket: our work or wealth. We define our worth by the size of our 401K or by our promotions. Here we are particularly vulnerable. For when that “basket” crashes — through lay-offs, firing, demotion, failure, disability, even retirement — and we can no longer do the work that defines us, we feel “the fall is so great”, and there is no safety net to catch us.

On the positive side, when work is working well, it gives us a sense of belonging and a sense of being a part of something larger than ourselves. Work gives us structure to our lives and the satisfaction that our skills and talents are contributing to the world in some way. This positive aspect of our identity protects us against depression, anxiety and loneliness. In this interview with Scott Mason, we explore the role of our work in our identity and well-being. We argue that we all need to cultivate a multifaceted identity where our personal worth is based on being loved for who you ARE not just on being admired for what you DO.

About Scott Mason
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Scott Mason is a motivational and keynote speaker -- focusing on resilience, personal transformation, and social ethics -- as well as the Principal of Scott Mason, LLC, which provides small business consulting and leadership mentoring services. Prior to that, Scott was co-Principal of The Brooklyn Press, a silkscreen printing company with locations in NYC and Newburgh, NY. Previously, Scott was the General Counsel and Vice-President of Operations for Urban Resource Institute, the USA's largest provider of domestic violence shelter services and an operator of homeless shelters. He also spent nearly 20 years in executive and in-house counsel positions with various City of New York agencies, including a time as the second-in-command of the agency which operates the City's administrative tribunal system. He is a graduate of Columbia Law School and Carleton College, and completed the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program in 2019. for more information on this episode go to https://www.sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/76